What we can see from these numbers is, to state the ridiculously obvious, that Newcastle were better than Melbourne.

The Jets had more possession, more shots, made more tackles and more passes. That said, the margins were very fine, and as we saw during the game there were probably only some key details that gave the Jets the three points - such as Emile Heskey-s finishing.

Despite their current form and place on the table, the stats suggest the Victory aren-t far away from their rivals. But in a competition as even as the A-League, those small differences can have a big impact.

Adelaide United v Wellington Phoenix

A match skewed somewhat by refereeing decisions, it would be good to have a breakdown of the numbers before and after Ben Sigmund-s sending off. But as things stand...

Given Sigmund was sent off in the 76th minute, one could argue that the stats from this fixture would have been fairly even, until going down to 10 men three Wellington-s game plan into chaos

That final 15 minutes would certainly have given Adelaide the time and space to exert their dominance over the visitors; the Reds- possession was much higher as were their number of passes (although Wellington rarely outpass their opponents) and crosses.

But it-s interesting to note that the two are fairly even in shots and tackles, reflecting perhaps the evenness of the game before the red card. The fact that Adelaide-s numbers here haven-t spiked also suggests that they didn-t quite dominate the game as much as the scoreline says; it certainly looked like that watching the match.

Brisbane Roar v Western Sydney Wanderers

It was billed as the biggest mismatch in the league but the underdogs showed the champions - and the league as a whole - that they can-t be taken lightly.

The Wanderers made a significantly higher number of tackles than Brisbane, which shows how much pressure they were applying to the champions. Their effectiveness was much lower than the Roar-s - but that stat is defined as the player with the ball losing it; the Wanderers weren-t always taking the ball from Brisbane, instead snapping at their heels and disrupting their play.

Western Sydney also outdid their hosts on shots and shots on target; when was the last time a visiting team did that at Suncorp?

We knew Perth were an ultra-competitive football team (is that just a euphemism for “physical”?) but it-s no wonder Sydney found it tough going at ANZ Stadium.

Glory bossed the possession - and absolutely killed it in the tackle, making 29 to Sydney 13, with a ridiculous 91% effectiveness. Almost every time a Sydney player was tackled, they lost the ball.

Glory also easily outpassed their hosts, yet again making a mockery of the suggestion that Ian Ferguson-s side rely on using their strength more than the ball.

And look at the comparison of crosses; we know Glory have good wide men and they certainly tried to make the most of them. And yet again, Sydney declined to send the ball in from the flanks, a recurring stat this season for the Sky Blues. This has to be taken in the context that they-re trying to play the ball on the ground and through Del PIero in the middle - but despite the result Sydney haven-t been playing well and could certainly use some variety in their play before their luck runs out.

*Note: we decided not to analyse the Heart-Mariners game, as the stats only backed up the equality of the game, and few insights could be drawn.